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User blog:Squall L./Part of why I HATEHATEHATE this show
Okay, this is gonna be a LOOOOOOOOOONG rant, and angry, so expect to see a lot of cussin. PS: I really hope that you'll at leasst read number 8 and 10. Out of an EXTREMELY long list of offenses, the absolute worst one out of literally hundreds of crimes is how the new asshats who took over this show after season 9 treated Riley. Out of all the new characters, including and especially ''the new "characters" who came in seaon scheisse 10 (excluding Adam, but he still wasn't as layered), he most certainly had the most potential. He was one of the first manly gay guys to star as a main character in North American TV. He and KC were the most complex characters of the entire batch in season 8 and 9, had the largest fanbase of any of the new characters, had a very talented actor, and these fucking useless homophobic shitheads who control the New show didn't do a damn thing with him! They really only kept him on the show so that they can abuse him and the fans, and I'd rather pretend that season 10 and afterwards is just a fanfiction that the old characters wrote about their school. 1. First of all, I'd like to tear into that "Two Rileys" bullshit. Riley's apparently not allowed to be the big tough, badass, cool Alpha Male even though other (shittier) characters do it (and do worse job of it, because unlike Riley they cross over into bully and misogynist territory) and get away with it. Why? Because he's gay! He can't be the manly Alpha Male AND be the sweet gay guy at the same time! These useless inbred rednecks made EVERYONE less complex when the New Show/Degrasshit started, but they force-fucked Riley over even worse than anyone else. Okay, moving beyond the homophobic double standard, Riley also had more going on with him than he did in Degrasshit. In season 9 when he dated Fiona he practically fangasmed over Let the Right One In. And in season 8, he had created a better literary analysis in English class than anyone else despite being on teh 'roids at the time. But of course, we never got to see beyond this in the New Shit. 2. They were so FUCKING LAZY when it came to explaining his background! We as the fans were BEGGING to be able to see his home life and to see why he became so messed up, but of course, the Hack "Writers" just didn't fucking care and decided to rub our faces in how much they can't stand him. 3. We NEVER got to see Riley be happy. His story is one of the most consistently miserable and depressing because these inbred morons only showed him so that they can continue to beat him down. 4. Then there's his relationship with Zane. The only reason why he wasn't with Peter is because the New "Writers" wanted to get rid of every single fucking vestement of Old/Good Degrassi, and because Peter was already flawed enough so that Riley could actually HELP HIM, and Peter would actually HELP Riley too! They had tons of chemistry, and it would've been a great way to wrap up Peter's relationships because all the girls he'd ever been close to have left him, and it would've been amazing for his best friend (some may say Ionly/I friend, when you take into account Danny and Sav...) to start opening up to him and never leave him. It would've been amazing to see the longer effects of Peter's meth addiction and how Riley helped him out with that, which we saw teasers of in the season 9 premiere, but that's all we got... Teasers, even though it certainly would've been far more important than Dave's Shit Nobody Cares About, or Clare writing Twilight fanfiction so that they can warn us about ECrap that the new "writers" would bring into the next season. Okay, enough about how they Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot with Piley, now lets get into how they Plotted a Perfectly Good Waste with Ziley. I tried to fall in love with Zane like Riley and have of everyone else did; I really, really did. Even now I feel bad about what I'm about to say, but dammit I have to see what other people think. They really only brought Zane in because EVERYONE NEEDS A BOYFRIEND/GIRLFRIEND according to DINO (Degrassi In Name Only), and so that they could have a perfect, flat, Gary-Stu that shows how "lame" (note the air quotes because they didn't succeed) Riley supposedly is. Idfc how many times we're TOLD otherwise, we never really see Zane actually helping Riley deal with any of his issues. When Drewshbag was bullying and hate-criming Riley while he was also dealing with the stress trying to do as best as he fucking can in football (because he’s planning on being scouted and that’s his fucking dream career), Zane tried to force him to come out of the closet and frankly didn’t really seem to give a damn about what Riley was going through. Though admittedly I can understand why Zane would want Riley to come out, but JfC it’s not all about you, especially seeing as how he seems to have such a wonderful, fucking perfect easy life with perfect parents and perfect self-esteem. It was fucking AWESOME when he curbstomped Owen and put him in his place TWICE, but apparently that’s a fucking BAD thing even though OTHER CHARACTERS DO THE SAME THING. He even beat up Owen a second time (like he should’ve) to defend Zane and this apparently means he has problems with violence and that he deserves to get yelled at. Then apparently we’re told that he’s just supposed to fucking ignore the problem… Yeah, right, because THAT’S what you do when someone’s messing with you and you have the power to make them stop… Lying there and taking it. Yeah that’s worked SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO well for every other character in Degrassi history, and this is particularly enraging when characters MORE violently handle their problems the way Riley did and it gets portrayed as a GOOD thing. Then he HAS to come out of the closet in order to please Zane and get back together with him even though he wasn’t ready. People say that it’s a good thing that he came out in then, but where the fuck are they getting this? Once he was out, he practically disappeared from the show and apparently lost almost all his friends. 5. Now I need to move on to the teabagging abomination that was DOYS. Zane had previously said that Riley didn’t have to come out to his parents until he was read- Wait a minute. That’s not “coming out.” He was already out to his mom, and that did absolutely nothing and in fact caused his relationship with her to regress backwards. Okay, not come out to his parents. Err… Being shunned by his parents. Yeah that’s a better way to put it. Mhm, yes, Zane already previously said that Riley didn’t have to cause his parents to shun him until he was ready, but then he flips the fuck out and jumps to the conclusion that Riley is cheating on him. Oh and I roll my eye whenever someone says “well Riley’s already messed up so much already.” In what way exactly? We never see Zane helping Riley with his issues; that’s a fact. We’re TOLD that Zane helped him, but we’re not SHOWN. We are shown, however, that Zane has high expectations of him and most of their relationship dynamic is Riley trying to please Zane. To anyone who frequents the ECrap thread, you’ll be aware of this concept of “Show don’t tell” which has been plaguing this show ever since season scheisse 10 started. Anyways, getting back on topic. Let’s look at the reason why this break up happened: Riley wouldn’t start WW3 with his parents. Who wanted him to start WW3 with his parents? Zane, even though it 'BARELY AFFECTS HIM IN ANY WAY. Riley ABSOLUTELY had the right mind set when he was upset over Zane forcing him to choose between his family and his boyfriend. But why is he the only one with mindset? Why does he have to defend himself all on his own? Why isn’t Anya agreeing with him? Isn’t she supposed to be his best friend? Do they really hate our poor Riley so much that they have to go through all this; though I suppose shitty writing is as easy as breathing to them. Fuck. If Peter were here, he would defend Riley. Oh Peter how I miss you! Then that’s the ONLY plot we get and Riley has to make up with his parents and get back together with his somewhat self-centered boyfriend on the sidelines within like FIVE MINUTES?! They just took a shit over him, and all of us fans. 6. The HBICs are blatant homophobes. Fiona barely counts since her sexuality is given like 3% of her screen time, so she barely counts. Adam suffers much the same way that Riley does. They’re both just the gay/trans kid who are stuck in the shadows of shittier characters played by shittier actors. They also have the problem with stereotyping. I already talked about how they won’t let Riley be the abdass Alpha Male AND sweet gay guy at the same time, and now this same problem is with Adam. He used to do almost entirely manly things like fighting, hanging out with guys, and working out. Now he’s gotten ten times girlier… And he STILL hasn’t moved outside of his useless asshole brother’s shadow. To anyone who is still going to end up watching this show until it is finally and righteously smitten, I feel for you. Just you wait… The same problems with Adam and Fiona are going to continue going on like they are now. 7. All this is the biggest reason why I absolutely fucking hate what these drunken mistakes from Teennick did to this show. If I could get away with it, I’d tie them all down in separate rooms, locked in with 1000 wasps for all eternity. 8. He came SO FAR and he had SO MUCH promise in potential in seasons 8 and 9. He was so well developed and layered, and it was obvious that even he was a bit of jerk ('''but STILL not NEARLY as bad as some of the new "characters" and the VAST majority of Degrassi characters in general.) but it was clear how tortured and lost he was, to the extent that he would actually resort to hurting himself to try and "repair" something that's not wrong and purely natural and part of him that he was browbeaten into believing pretty much his entire life. Then I've already had people demonize him so that they can psychologically torture me. Then to make matters even worse, the way the show dehumanizes, abuses, shuns, neglects, and demonizes this character that I've come to love more than any other character I've ever come across in my life (including Harry Potter characters and Ellen Ripley), and I wanted so desperately to jump into the TV (even though the New Degrassiverse is literally a Place Worse Than Death to me) and make him feel better and tell him that he's good person who deserves to be happy and loved absolutely ripped me apart. And he never got justice, and he never got the love and recognition he deserved. Then the last thing I wanna talk about is the Hate Dumb. The only reason why people hate him is because the show TELLS you that he deserves to be kicked and demonized, when we're SHOWN the opposite. He did EVERYTHING from coming to beating up a bully to please his boyfriend who frankly doesn't care about Riley as as much does about him, who's also a Gary Stu and makes him feel crap? Then to continue on with his adoration of his boyfriend he selflessly endures his beloved mother's abuse and ostracization for MONTHS just so that he can please and his unpleaseable, self-centered BF. And all this makes him some fucking terrible, selfish, demonic horrible person who deserves to be hated and is unworthy of an ounce of compassion? To the people this applies to (and you know who you are): Fuck you. 9. Hopefully this is last rant defending Riley I’ll ever have to make. But if someone actually wants to attempt to come up with a counterargument and try and prove me wrong, fire away. 10. For all of you mercifully few people who believe that there's nothing that could have been done with him outside his gayness: What the fuck? You sound like an inbred redneck when you spout off this tripe. This extremely pisses me off because wehther people want to admit it or are even capable of seeing it, this is a homophobic statement. This is almost always the norm whenever you're dealing with LGBT characters in fiction. What does the HBICs usually do when they have a gay character? THey make their sexuality a part of their story, and they insist on focusing on it, instead of you know um, just treating us LGBTs like normal people? No, we're always gay people first, normal people second. If you're familiar with the Smurfette Principle then is the Smurfette Principle for LGBTs (The Queer Principle if you will). Marco suffered majorly from it, as does Adam. The lesbians get a better treatment in the show by far, but to a homophobic mindset lesbians are "better" than gay GUYS (transsexuals are just as "bad" if not "worse."). The Queer Principle did not seem to be something that would've hindered Riley had the writers from seasons 1-9 been allowed to continue to be in charge of the show, but this is clearly what the new "writers" did to him once the show became unimaginably awful, and Adam suffers in much the same way, because he's yet to get a plot that doesn't inolve him being Trans. Credit goes to Danix for this next part of point #10 explaining why Riley could've been used for ANYTHING which a MERCIFULLY small number of people cannot see for some strange reason. "Anything that wasn't related to his sexuality would have been a plot they could have done with him. I would've liked it. The writers made it too much of a point to constantly emphasize his sexuality, thus failing to develop him beyond that aspect of his characterization. I would've liked to see more of Riley outside of the restricted realm of his sexuality. ' '@OP: I'd just like to comment that I don't think Riley being gay is necessarily what accentuated his potential. Even if he had been straight, they still could have done a lot with him. Take for instance, his personality alone. At a first glance, he looks like he could be your typical jock, but his inner persona really puts a spin on the whole tough-guy image; rough around the edges, but a sweet sensitive soul deep down. In that sense, he's less of your typical football player prototype and more individualistic, which is one thing I particularly liked about Riley. In spite of his anger issues, he's a very emotionally-driven individual who is so much more than as he appears on the surface." When you say "There's nothing beyond his gayness," you are agreeing with the Queer Principle. For those of us who bat for the other team (or both, or any variation there of), this is extremely offensive. Category:Blog posts